EU: Dr Hans-Gert Pöttering, a German career politician whose father died in one of the last battles of the second World War six months before he was born, was yesterday elected president of the European Parliament.
In a deal between the two major groups in the parliament, the Christian Democratic MEP, who led the EPP group from 1999, had a comfortable majority over three other candidates, taking 450 votes.
Dr Pöttering has been a member of the parliament since the first direct elections in 1979 for the Christian Democratic Union.
The staunchly Catholic father of two sons was born in Bersenbruck, Lower Saxony. He studied politics and history in Bonn, Geneva and New York and worked as an academic until his election to the European Parliament in 1979.
He was chairman of the sub-committee on security and defence from 1984 to 1994 and in 1994 became vice- chairman of the EPP, the parliamentary grouping to which Fine Gael belongs.
In a major development yesterday, a new right-wing group, Identity, Sovereignty and Tradition, finally got the necessary 20 signatures to get itself group status and funding.
Among its deputies are Jean-Marie Le Pen, who is again running for the French presidency on a nationalist platform that plays on concerns about immigration, globalisation and the contention that France has sacrificed its interests and sovereignty to the EU.
The group's successful formation means it will secure EU funding to promote its ideas. It will be able to hire staff to assist MEPs, at a cost estimated to be in the region of €1 million.
The 20 members from seven countries are led by Bruno Gollnisch, deputy leader behind Mr Le Pen of France's National Front party. Mr Le Pen's daughter, Marine, also joins them in the new group.
Other members include three deputies from Belgium's nationalist Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) party.